Prieska and Kuruman districts, Cape Province

The Prieska and Kuruman districts of South Africa's Cape Province were blue asbestos country: the U.S. Bureau of Mines' Minerals Yearbook described crocidolite "in banded ironstones occupying a belt extending through Prieska and Kuruman," and in 1942 called these districts the home of "the best blue fiber," where "the largest production is centered."^2,3 In 1924 Asbestos, the industry's trade journal, reported that "several blue asbestos mines have recently re-opened" near Kuruman, with district output "about 100 tons per month," and that "Prieska is producing 160 to 180 tons per month, mainly from the Cape Asbestos Company's properties."¹

The documents report this mine producing asbestos fiber for sale.¹

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Output the documents report

Figures as printed, in the units each document uses (short tons before about 1990, metric tons after, in most U.S. chapters). Some are a year's output, some a daily rate or a capacity, some a company's total rather than this mine's alone; the statement for that year below says which.

Year by year

Every statement about this mine in the documents, in each document's own words, by the year it is about.

1924

• Output: “the output from that district being at the present time about 100 tons per month”, p. 48¹
• Output: “Prieska is producing 160 to 180 tons per month, mainly from the Cape Asbestos Company's properties” (Cape Asbestos Company), p. 48¹

1933

• Description: “Cape of Good Hope asbestos is the blue variety (crocidolite) which occurs in banded ironstones occupying a belt extending through Prieska and Kuruman”, p. 7³

1942

• Output: “The best blue fiber (crocidolite) occurs in the Prieska and Kuruman districts of Cape Province, where the largest production is centered”, p. 10²

In medical studies

Medical studies in our research library that name this mine, by how they concern it. A search found every one that names the mine and an AI reader sorted them; the quotation, checked word for word against the text, shows where. Those that name the mine only in passing or in a reference list are left out.

Studies of the mine’s workers (1)

• WAGNER JC 1960: Diffuse pleural mesothelioma and asbestos exposure in the North Western Cape Province: “He was born in the Kuruman district and as a child often played on the asbestos dump near an asbestos mine.”

Other names

Documents call this mine “Prieska”, “Kuruman”, “Kuruman District”.

References

1. Asbestos Magazine, 1924, June 1924 (June 1, 1924), p. 48.
2. Minerals Yearbook: Asbestos Chapters, 1942 (January 1, 1943), p. 10.
3. Minerals Yearbook: Asbestos Chapters, 1934 (January 1, 1935), p. 7.